That's So Cliche

We laughed so hard the first time we saw our boy dog pee.

We had girl dog. Had her since she was eight weeks old, and she still peed the same as she always had, lowering her rear to the ground, the equivalent of a human squatting.

The male dog, already eight or so when we got him, lifted his leg higher than his own head, nearly tipping over to aim his stream of pee on the intended target. Some days when he is feeling particularly limber, he lifts his leg even higher.

He likes to pee on trees, bushes, ivy, and anywhere else any other dog has gone -- to pee over some other dog's pee, to leave his mark.

We couldn't believe when saw him pee on a fire hydrant, the white one in front of our neighbor's house. It was funny because my son had just learned about cliches -- was still making sense of them and how they worked.

"Buddy, don't pee on that fire hydrant. That's so cliche," my son said, gripping the dog's leash in his hand as he doubled over with laughter.

It turned out that we both thought boy dogs peeing on fire hydrants was something only cartoon dogs did.

He peed on the girl dog once too, Buddy, the R. Kelly of dogs.